Social Media ROI - How to Achieve: Fans & Followers on Social Networks

What is the benefit of a fan or follower?

Having a person become a fan or follower opens up a casual 24/7 marketing channel with them. You have the ability to literally promote your business to them whenever you want - which was never possible before.

How do you get fans and followers?

Building a following on social networks takes time but there are numerous ways to help you do that. Your social networks provide a variety of different contests (photo, vote or photo caption contests) you can run to generate rapid growth of your fan base. An easy way to get a large number of new fans and followers is to run a sweepstakes.

Lindt knows that sweepstakes are a great way to boost social media following.

Therefore, they launched a sweepstakes for Valentine’s Day asking its Facebook fans to send a personalized e-card to enter the contest with a chance to win a gift basket.

What can businesses learn from this?

Make e-mail addresses necessary for entry

Encourage participation by promoting your sweepstakes via various social networks

Running contests periodically is just as important as sharing valuable and compelling content on a regular basis. Followers will like, share and comment on your content if its interesting and entertaining. That will help you build a stronger online presence, increase the virality of your posts, and create a loyal fan community. In order to get your followers involved and attract new fans, encourage them to share their content on your social network site.

A very effective tool to promote your website are web widgets, such as Facebook “Like” buttons that are placed on your website. When a fan clicks on “Like”, this action will be reported back to Facebook. Every time a visitor clicks the “Like“ button, your site has the potential to be visited by all of their friends. You may attract new fans and more loyal readers as it is a personal recommendation rather than a result from a web search. To get your social buttons installed on your website contact Wishpond and get your free 7-day trial.

On their main business website, Nike lists all its Facebook and Twitter accounts which can be liked individually.

Twitter is a very useful social platform to foster relationships and exchange information. Business and thought leaders make use of Twitter to share their messages and influence their industry and target markets. In order to build relationships with customers and prospects, you need to communicate and interact directly with your audience via Twitter. This will help expand your company’s network, establish connections and attract new customers.

The open nature of Twitter accomplishes many things. First of all, you might learn something from a Twitter discussion. People have a lot of information and differing points of view and by joining or following a conversation on Twitter, you may learn details about your industry that you did not previously know. In addition, Twitter gives you an opportunity to position yourself as an influencer and a trusted source.

By Tweeting interesting, intelligent and informative content and by responding and asking questions, you can prove to your audience that you are reputable and will gain a few followers along the way. This will build your reputation online and in real life. You’ll also gain valuable contacts in your field. The people you have conversations with may begin to feel comfortable with you and trust your expertise, which will make them more willing to work with you in the future. This is the true “networking” portion of the term “social networking.”

There is a great deal of value to participating in discussions on Twitter. While doing so can seem overwhelming, complicated and time-consuming at first, you will eventually feel more comfortable with doing so and you’ll gain a lot of value from your participation.

Richard Branson, the founder and chairman of Virgin Group interacts and connects with his Twitter followers regularly. A good way to make your followers share their thoughts is to ask a question that is directly addressed to your audience and focuses on them. Richard Branson started his Twitter conversation with the question “What have you done to make the world better today” and called his followers to action by tweeting “-Think about it”.

Wishpond has a strong connection to its customer and knows how to use Twitter to build an even stronger relationship. Sending tweets that show great interest in what your followers do will flatter them and help you grow a bond.

What can businesses learn from this?

Create engaging questions for discussion

Find the right balance between listening, sharing your own information and relevant content

Share your knowledge to help your followers

Understand how to participate and influence the conversation

Recognize people’s comments by retweeting or replying to them

Act as a liaison to the public for your company

Check out Wishpond’s Twitter Campaigns to boost your ROI from Twitter using contests and promotions: